126 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



grandeur of its native growth, in the midst of savage 

 mountain environment. 



Londoners may see some very good chestnut trees in 

 Kensington Gardens, in Greenwich Park, and in Kew 

 Gardens. In this latter spot we were watching a number 

 of boys hunting under the trees for the fallen chestnuts, 

 when we heard another onlooker tell his companion that 

 these busy seekers were "after mulberries," which remark 

 seems almost in itself, if the idea be at all common that 

 chestnut trees yield mulberries, a justification for our book.^ 



Many fine chestnuts are to be found scattered over 

 the country, in the Forest of Dean, Enfield Chace, Cowdray 

 Park, Petworth, Burgate, Cobham, Nettlecombe, and else- 

 where. At Tortworth, in Gloucestershire, is a chestnut 

 that, now little more than a ruin, had, at four feet from 

 the ground, a circumference of fifty-one feet. It is known 

 to have been standing there in the year 1 1 50, and was 

 even then so fine a tree that it was called " the great 

 chestnut." It was a boundary mark between two manors, 

 and is mentioned in deeds of Kings John and Stephen. 

 As young inconspicuous trees are scarcely raised to the 

 dignity of boundary marks, it may well have been standing 

 there a century before, while tradition carries it back yet 

 further. 



The leaves of the Spanish chestnut are of a deep, glossy 



green, strongly veined, and having a much indented margin. 



Their general character may be seen depicted in our 



eighteenth illustration. They are often eight or nine 



' On pointing out to a friend amongst some ruins in tlie environs of Rome 

 a rather specially fine plant of fennel, a man who happened to be within 

 earshot turned to us and said, " Don't you know what it is ? That is the 

 hemlock that Socrates was poisoned with ! " 



